Robert Deyber (August 13, 1955 - September 20, 2021) was an American artist best known for literal visual portrayals of cliches, euphemisms, and idioms from the English and other languages. The ''San Francisco Examiner'' in 2009 described him as a "pop surrealist" whose style "has appeal for new as well as experienced collectors."

San Francisco Examiner The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and has been published since 1863. Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst and the flagship of the He ...

, July 16, 2009. Retrieved July 24, 2009 His work relates to that of

Thomas Cole Thomas Cole (February 1, 1801 – February 11, 1848) was an English-born American artist and the founder of the Hudson River School art movement. Cole is widely regarded as the first significant American landscape painter. He was known for hi ...

and

Frederic Church Frederic Edwin Church (May 4, 1826 – April 7, 1900) was an American landscape painter born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters, best known for painting large landscapes, ...

of the

Hudson River School The Hudson River School was a mid-19th-century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by Romanticism. Early on, the paintings typically depicted the Hudson River Valley and the sur ...

, surrealists like

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (11 May 190423 January 1989), known as Salvador Dalí ( ; ; ), was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, ...

and

René Magritte René François Ghislain Magritte (; 21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967) was a Belgium, Belgian surrealist artist known for his depictions of familiar objects in unfamiliar, unexpected contexts, which often provoked questions about the nature ...

, naive painter

Henri Rousseau Henri Julien Félix Rousseau (; 21 May 1844 – 2 September 1910)
at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Gug ...

, the colorists

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual arts, visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, ...

and

Marc Chagall Marc Chagall (born Moishe Shagal; – 28 March 1985) was a Russian and French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with the School of Paris, École de Paris, as well as several major art movement, artistic styles and created ...

, and

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (;''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''"Warhol" born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director and producer. A leading figure in the pop art movement, Warhol ...

. Deyber painted his own scenes from the prose that peppers the English lexicon. His works range from literal translations of fanciful sayings to kitschy depictions of everyday terminology.

Early life

Robert grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut, his mother Janice (1925-1971) a talented portrait artist and fashion model who died when Deyber was sixteen, his father Robert Deyber Sr (1914-1989), a real estate broker and

POW POW is "prisoner of war", a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. POW or pow may also refer to: Music * P.O.W (Bullet for My Valentine song), "P.O.W" (Bull ...

, survivor of the

Bataan Death March The Bataan Death March was the Death march, forcible transfer by the Imperial Japanese Army of around 72,000 to 78,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war (POWs) from the municipalities of Bagac and Mariveles on the Bataan Peninsula to Camp ...

. Deyber began painting and drawing in his teens, and continued to develop a style that was original and surreal, drawing inspiration from the cultures that surrounded him as he lived in various parts of the country, from New York City to San Francisco. Deyber eventually wound up in

Perugia Perugia ( , ; ; ) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area. It has 162,467 ...

and

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

, Italy where he studied and observed the works of

Giotto di Bondone Giotto di Bondone (; – January 8, 1337), known mononymously as Giotto, was an Italian painter and architect from Florence during the Late Middle Ages. He worked during the Gothic and Proto-Renaissance period. Giotto's contemporary, the ba ...

and other Italian painters. His early work from the 1980s and 1990s involves work that he describes as neo-surrealism or surreal American mythology. While he continued to develop and show his work, he was an executive in the airline industry, which allowed him to travel all over the world, exposing himself to art in many museums. He continued for twenty years to exhibit his work in the Boston area.

Later activities

After leaving the airline industry in 2001, Deyber moved to

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

to be closer to his siblings. It was at that time that he began to focus on his artistic career and began exhibiting his work in the surrounding areas. With much success, his work began to grow in popularity, and he soon was represented in many surrounding and distant states. By 2004, Deyber had been selling works around the world and had collectors in 27 countries. At the time he was self-published and selling original paintings and prints through many galleries across the country and was routinely featured in th
Artful Home
catalog. He opened a contemporary fine-art gallery in

Roswell, Georgia Roswell is a city in northern Fulton County, Georgia, United States. At the official 2020 census, the city had a population of 92,883, making Roswell the state's ninth largest city. A suburb of Atlanta, Roswell has an affluent National Registe ...

, "Iridium Gallery", which featured his own works and those of about a dozen other artists. He later sold the gallery and began selling works directly from his studio and website and other larger galleries in the Atlanta area. After singer-songwriter

Tom Petty Thomas Earl Petty (October 20, 1950October 2, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He was the leader and frontman of the Rock music, rock bands Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Mudcrutch and a member of the late 1980s sup ...

and his wife Dana began collecting his work, Petty commissioned Deyber for the artwork of his album ''

Highway Companion ''Highway Companion'' is the third and final solo studio album by American singer-songwriter Tom Petty. It was released on July 25, 2006, and charted at No. 4 on the ''Billboard'' 200 album chart. The album was produced by former Traveling Wilbur ...

'', which was released in 2006. In March 2006, Deyber exhibited his work at the New York International Art Expo, gaining significant attention for his work and gathering dozens of galleries to represent his work. After meeting the owner of Chalk & Vermilion at the Expo, Robert has been exclusively represented by the firm and its network of galleries across the country,

Martin Lawrence Galleries Martin Lawrence Galleries was founded in 1975 and operates nine fine art galleries in the United States specializing in original paintings, sculpture and limited-edition graphics. Martin Lawrence's collection includes works of art by Andy Warhol, ...

. In 2008, Deyber moved back to Connecticut, settling in Litchfield. then New Milford and finally in Roxbury, CT. While Deyber's preferred medium of artistic expression was painting, he did produce some three-dimensional sculpture pieces and had many sketches and plans for installation work.

Death

Deyber, 66, died on September 20, 2021, at home in Roxbury, CT of suicide by

asphyxiation Asphyxia or asphyxiation is a condition of deficient supply of oxygen to the body which arises from abnormal breathing. Asphyxia causes generalized hypoxia, which affects all the tissues and organs, some more rapidly than others. There are ...

. Deyber’s declining health, especially degenerative spinal disease causing intolerable back pain, combined with rapidly worsening depression and anxiety, were factors, having lasted for decades. Deyber wrote in deep regret that he had reached the point where he could no longer continue.

References

External links

Primary sources

* Deyber, Robert. "A Language All His Own". Jenkintown Press, 2008. {{DEFAULTSORT:Deyber, Robert 1955 births 2021 deaths 2021 suicides American contemporary painters People from Litchfield, Connecticut American postmodern artists Artists from Greenwich, Connecticut Painters from Connecticut 20th-century American sculptors American male sculptors 20th-century American painters American male painters 20th-century American printmakers Sculptors from Connecticut 20th-century American male artists